New Castle

New Castle is a city in New Castle County, Delaware, located six miles south of Wilmington on the Delaware River. It was settled by Peter Stuyvesant and the Dutch West India Company in 1651 on the site of a Native American village, Tomakonck, and it was originally called Fort Casimir. In 1654, New Sweden seized the fort and renamed it Fort Trinity due to seizing it on Trinity Sunday, but the Dutch reconquered the region a year later and renamed it to New Amstel. In 1664, England seized the colony and renamed New Amstel to "New Castle", making it the capital of Delaware. On 27 October 1682, New Castle was the site of William Penn's landing on American soil, and it was a center of government prior to the establishment of Philadelphia. In 1704, New Castle became the seat of government of the new colony of Delaware after it split from Pennsylvania, and the capital was moved to Dover in May 1777 during the American Revolutionary War. New Castle remained the county seat until after the American Civil War, when it was moved to Wilmington. In 2016, New Castle had a population of 5,357 people.